Ukraine’s Naftogaz has requested gas supplies for the second half of 2016 and first quarter of 2017 from Gazprom, Alexei Miller, chief executive of the Russian gas exporter, said on Tuesday.
Jacob Heilbrunn: Back to Brinkmanship
AT THE heart of the original Cold War was nuclear confrontation. In his 1945 essay “You and the Atomic Bomb,” which he wrote two months after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, George Orwell coined the term “cold war” to describe the new epoch that he saw emerging after the fall of Nazi Germany and the rise of the Soviet Union and the United States.
Fair and Balanced? Senate Foreign Relations Committee Holds Russia Hearing This Afternoon
This afternoon the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a hearing on Russia policy featuring 2 panels. The first will feature the testimony of two Obama administration hawks, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Pentagon official Michael Carpenter. The second will feature two (other) prominent critics of the Russian government: David Satter of the neoconservative Hudson Institute and Vladmimir Kara-Murza of the Open Russia Movement.
Citations Needed PODCAST: What is Wrong with MSNBC?
What is the point of having a liberal cable news network when it ignores so many major issues on the Left and pushes a narrative that, in the aggregate, does little beyond selling more weapons systems and inflaming US-Russia proxy wars in Syria and Ukraine?
Netanyahu: Deepening ties with Russia important for Israel’s security (JPost)
The deepening ties between Israel and Russia are important for the country’s security, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday as he addressed a Jerusalem Day ceremony on the eve of his Monday departure to Moscow.
Stephen F. Cohen: ‘Russiagate’ Allegations Continue to Escalate the Danger of War With Russia
Incessant Kremlin-baiting of President Trump is risking a Cuban Missile-like crisis that he, unlike JFK in 1962, may not be permitted to resolve peacefully.
More Developments on Cold War 2.0 (Reuters)
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told his Finnish counterpart the Kremlin would take unspecified measures to respond to increased NATO activity in the Baltic region, making clear he was vexed by Helsinki’s hosting of alliance drills.
Glenn Greenwald: The Psychology of Russiagate
Glenn Greenwald on Russiagate and the comforting answers it offers to despondent liberals.
As fighting surges again in Ukraine, an environmental disaster looms (Washington Post)
Land mines and sniper fire, tank traps and unexploded shells have shut down Highway 20, the main artery into eastern Ukraine’s separatist stronghold of Donetsk. But despite the upheavals caused by two years of war, ordinary life along the route has struggled on.
Rowan Scarborough: Robert Mueller’s warning: ‘Many’ news stories on Trump-Russia probe are wrong
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s office is warning that “many” news articles on the Trump-Russia probe have been wrong…the warning comes after media inquiries about a McClatchy News story on Friday that said Mr. Mueller has evidence that President Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, did in fact travel to Prague in 2016 as alleged by the Christopher Steele dossier.
Russia says U.S. refuses talks on missile defence system (Reuters)
The United States has refused Russian offers to discuss Washington’s missile defence programme, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov was quoted as saying on Sunday, calling the initiative “very dangerous”.
Volodymyr Ishchenko: Denial of the Obvious: Far Right in Maidan Protests and Their Danger Today
Recently the massive rallies of the far right parties, the powerful public presentation of the National Militia affiliated to Azov’s “National Corps” party, escalating attacks by extreme right groups against leftist, feminist, LGBT, human rights events brought Ukrainian radical nationalists back into the center of the public discussion.
Missionaries of Modernity (Paul Robinson)
Missionaries of Modernity by Antonio Giustozzi and Artemy Kalinovsky looks at the part played by foreign advisors in developing countries during and after the Cold War.
Katrina vanden Heuvel: The US Still Considers Itself a Global Policeman
We have arrogated to ourselves the right to attack other sovereign countries when they offend our judgments of proper behavior—about human rights, against civil war on the European continent, against chemical weapons. Of course, we do not attack our allies such as Saudi Arabia in Yemen, or Israel in Gaza for engaging in such activities.
Japan Charts More Independent Course to Improve Russian Relations (Robert Shines)
While the argument may indeed by made that Japan is already fully aligned with the U.S. due to their mutual defense treaty, this did not stop Japanese Prime Minister Abe from meeting with Russian President Putin in Sochi in the past month. Previously, the U.S. expressed its desire for the meeting to only occur after Japan’s G-7 meeting this past week.
Robert Fisk visits the Syria clinic at the centre of a global crisis
This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks – and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world’s most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week.
Syrian troops backed by US and Russia press into Raqqa province (Deutsche Welle)
Both US-backed and Russian-backed forces want to drive members of the self-proclaimed “Islamic State” from Raqqa. The two respective assaults against IS began on the same day last week.
John R. MacArthur: Humanitarian Wars
It’s less useful to condemn this or that unscrupulous politician – the two Bushes, Tony Blair, Sarkozy, the Clinton couple, Obama – than to dig deeper and arrive at an understanding that the ideology of humanitarian intervention is not intrinsically virtuous anywhere, including in Syria.
Latest from OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine
The SMM observed more ceasefire violations in Donetsk region and fewer ceasefire violations in Luhansk region compared with the previous day. The Mission continued to monitor the withdrawal of weapons and noted heavy weapons in violation of withdrawal lines. The SMM also noted armoured combat vehicles in the security zone.
Paul Pillar: Non-Accomplishment in Syria
The missile strike against Syria in response to an alleged chemical attack has given many people a cathartic moment without having to produce any new and effective ideas about how to deal with the ugly conflict in Syria.